‘Stansted 15’ found guilty of ‘endangering’ airport

FIFTEEN people – including a woman from Bristol – who worked together to stop a deportation flight leaving Stansted Airport have been convicted of “endangering an aerodrome”.

Ruth Potts, from Southville, and her 14 co-defendants – known as the ‘Stansted 15’ – said they were “guilty of nothing more than intervening to prevent harm”.

But a judge at Chelmsford Crown Court told the jury their intentions were not a defence.

The campaign group was convicted of disrupting flights and “endangering an aerodrome” yesterday.

The offences date back to March 28, 2017, when Ms Potts, 42, and her co-defendants breached Stansted Airport’s perimeter fence using boltcutters.

Once inside, they approached a large plane waiting on a stand, securing themselves around its wheel and wing using ‘lock box’ devices which made them immovable.

The plane was a charter flight by the Home Office which was repatriating passengers to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.

Airport security and police spent hours removing the defendants from the aircraft before they were arrested.

Multiple flights in and out of Stansted were disrupted as a result of the protest, causing delays for thousands of passengers.

Judith Reed, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “These people placed themselves, the flight crew, airport personnel and police at serious risk of injury or even death due to their actions on the airfield.”

The group will be sentenced at a later date.